Tulips & Windmills River Cruise Photos - Page 2 - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

jstducky · 05-30-2006, 07:29 PM

Hm... thats interesting Larry. Thank you.

Thats pretty neat that you get a passenger manifest in advance.

Can you tell me which river cruise line you are using for your river cruise?

I am sure you will have a lot of fun! Can't wait to hear about it when you return!

ladibugz · 05-30-2006, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill S

I have created a photo album of the highlights of our April 13-22 Viking River Cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium in the Cruise Gallery:

http://www.cruiselineforums.com/gall...ion=showalbums

It is the Viking Sky cruise album--enjoy!

I hope to have a review posted soon! Suffice it to say it was a wonderful experience.

These are wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Captain Larry · 05-30-2006, 08:36 PM

Alisa, we are going with Grand Circle Travel on their ship M/S River Symphony. The tour is called "Great Rivers of Europe" and the cruise is from Amsterdam to Vienna. We will cruise the Rhine (or Rhein, if you prefer), the Main, the Main/Danube Canal, and the Danube. There is to be at least one stop each day. Some of the cruising will be in daylight, but some will be at night. GCT runs the cruise probably fifty times a year, more frequently in the summer months. It is available in the reverse direction also, and they run other cruises on other rivers, with varying durations. Our cruise, with a post-cruise extension of three nights in Vienna, is 19 days.

Bill S · 05-31-2006, 03:25 AM

Alisa: we sailed with a group of 5 other couples, so we did not get to know as many other passengers as we normally would but did get to know about half of the 68 aboard.

The ages ran from mid-30s to late 70s/early 80s. I'd guess that the average age was about 55. Most passengers we met were American but we met one couple from Australia.

It was our first river cruise and we would consider another one and would recommend river cruising to others. BTW, we saw a lot, and I mean a lot of other river cruise ships during our stops. At a few cities, we were stacked side by side and had to cross over or through other ships to get to the pier for excurusions as did other cruisers have to do with our ship! Some mornings/evenings we were window-to-window with another ship. Not a good idea to leave your curtains open after retiring for the night!

Captain Larry · 05-31-2006, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill S

... we saw a lot, and I mean a lot of other river cruise ships during our stops. At a few cities, we were stacked side by side and had to cross over or through other ships to get to the pier for excurusions as did other cruisers have to do with our ship! Some mornings/evenings we were window-to-window with another ship. Not a good idea to leave your curtains open after retiring for the night!

Right. GCT has warned us to expect that condition at some of the more popular ports.

jstducky · 05-31-2006, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill S

Alisa: we sailed with a group of 5 other couples, so we did not get to know as many other passengers as we normally would but did get to know about half of the 68 aboard.

It was our first river cruise and we would consider another one and would recommend river cruising to others. BTW, we saw a lot, and I mean a lot of other river cruise ships during our stops. At a few cities, we were stacked side by side and had to cross over or through other ships to get to the pier for excurusions as did other cruisers have to do with our ship! Some mornings/evenings we were window-to-window with another ship. Not a good idea to leave your curtains open after retiring for the night!

that must have been an experience!

is Viking a well known name in river cruising?

what were your port stops?

Bill S · 05-31-2006, 04:56 PM

Alisa: yep, the ships were so close that if our window could have opened, we would have been able touch the window opposite ours!

I assume that Viking is a well known river cruise company and they are heaquarted in sunny So Cal! I think they have at least 8 ships in their fleet, maybe more.

Our port cities were: Amsterdam, Hoorn, Volendam, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Dordrecht, Antwerp, Vissigen/Middleburg, and Rotterdam.

jstducky · 05-31-2006, 05:23 PM

Bill,

I like the age range of the people that were on your cruise. I may have to look into a river cruise. Unfortunately, I am out of vacation for 2006 and 2007 already. But there's always 2008....

Those sound like amazing ports. What would you say was your favorite, and why? Did the ship dock right at the city, or were you a distance away from the cities?

Bill S · 06-01-2006, 12:50 AM

Alisa: yes, the ports were all unique and off-the-beaten-path, compared to the ports we visit on the mainstream cruise lines. The age demographics had a nice spread at least for our cruise, but by far our small group was the most active and outgoing-we danced a lot each night - we likely provided most of the entertainment for most of the other passengers, although the Aussie couple and the mid-thirtyish couple from Santa Barbara were on the dance floor a lot, too. We had a really good time. Every cruise is as much fun as you make it.

My favorite cities, largely from a photographic viewpoint were Hoorn, Dordrecht and Bruges-very interesting, old cities with a lot of charm. Overall favorites though are Amsterdam and Bruges. Amsterdam seems to have something for everyone and is extremely walkable and interesting. It has great restaurants, canals, museums and just seems so vibrant. Bruges is just simply a medieval city frozen in time in many respects. It is hard not to really become enchanted with Bruges--my wife just loves it there: lots of lace, awesome Belgian chocolates and waffles, buckets of steamed mussels and Belgian beer, ivy covered walls and flower boxes/pots on window fronts, horse-drawn carriages with the clip-clop of hooves on the cobblestones, etc. It is just a neat city. There are sections truly touristy, but not obnoxiously so, IMO.